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Why baby turtles work together to dig themselves out of a nest

25 May 2016

BABY sea turtles work together to dig their way out of sandy nests, and the more of them there are, the less energy they use doing it.

Mohd Uzair Rusli at the University of Malaysia Terengganu buried clutches of between 10 and 60 eggs, and measured how much oxygen the hatchlings used – a proxy for energy use – while digging their way out.

The turtles in the largest groups dug their way out twice as fast on average as the smallest groups – in three days rather than eight. They also used less energy, just over one-seventh that of the smallest groups (Journal of Experimental Biology, doi.org/bhrk).

The findings could have implications for the conservation of endangered turtles, says Mohd Uzair. When natural egg clutches are moved to hatcheries, they are often split into smaller clutches, but that could make life harder for the young once they hatch.

This article appeared in print under the headline “Why team digging helps baby turtles”